I have moved...

I am posting this to let my Paint Party Friday friends know

I am still alive. I have been involved in a move since June.

Moving for young people is not too bad a chore. Before this last move, 

I had moved at least 14 times. At 83 (recently had my 84th birthday), 

moving was a bit tough, especially doing it without much help.

 Now I am settled in a smaller house with fewer "things".

To make a long story short, I have not had the time nor

the inclination to do much art. I have made a few cards

and still attend watercolor classes. The bottom

line is that I am withdrawing from Paint Party Friday

even though there are a number of you I feel that I

have been friends with for years. As my swan

song, I am posting a few of my latest pieces,

some from watercolor class.

Even though I won't be posting,  I hope to visit some of

the artists I have kept up with regularly. You can keep 

up with me on Facebook.

Taking a break from PPF

Things are revving up in regards to moving so I

really need to be spending more time packing and

less time on the computer. I am sorry that I will miss

seeing all the wonderful art on  Paint Party Friday, but

I hope to be back sometime in the near future. So I leave

you with this sketch I just did while talking on the phone.

Paint Party Friday Week 9

This week in watercolor class we did portraits. Here is

the one that I did from a photo supplied by the teacher.

Here is a sketch I made while watching TV. The paper

did some strange thing when watercolors hit it and her

complexion was very mottled and dotted. Rather than

tossing it out I decided to do a digital enhancement.

This is called posterizing.

Here is a photo of my mother the year she and my dad

were married. She was pretty even to the day she died.

So busy packing! I will have to move into a

temporary location if my house sells soon. I want

it to sell, of course, but a single person packing

is a major event! But I can't miss Paint Party Friday

this week even in the midst of chaos.

I think it's spring, finally.

The weather here has taken a turn for the warmer.

However, the official last frost date here is in May.

So I will wait for a little while before planting annuals.

On the other hand, the flowering trees and shrubbery

are so beautiful now in their spring colors.

This week in watercolor class, we had a choice of photos

to choose from. All were dogwood trees. I chose this

dogwood portrait to paint. Actually the picture was of

white dogwood blossoms but I wanted to do pink ones.

Then I took this terrible rose I had painted and doodled all 

over the page while I was watching television. I think it

turned out to be an interesting doodle.

And hearty thanks to Kristin and Eva for hosting

the weekly Paint Party Friday.

Dog art

I'm so caught up in trying to sell my house that I

am not really doing much art at all. I do have this

sweet dog whose chin is resting on the porch rail.

I did this in watercolor class Monday.

I'm also showing a photo of the poinsettia from Christmas 2016.

It spent the summer of 2017 outside. When I brought it inside

last fall, the shock made all the green leaves it had fall off.

It did have tiny pink leaves at the ends of these long branches.

I have babied it by supplying lots of sunlight and artificial

light. I have 2 small poinsettias from last Christmas that

I will also plant outside if we ever get spring here in VA.

Joining my friends on Paint Party Friday with much

gratitude for the hard work of the hosts 

Eva and Kristin.

Art for Nursing Home

Not much art this week. I did color in an adult coloring book

and put glitter glue generously on to the pieces I cut out to use

for making greetings cards with the nursing home residents.

Here is a card from one of the above.

The one thing I painted at home was this portrait.

And the watercolor is from the Monday's class. I do not

like to paint structures so this class was not fun for me.

And finally a doodle I did while watching TV.

The cover photo is of me and my sisters when we had
brown hair (not sure if it was natural!).
I'm joining my friends at Paint Party Friday for
another great art get-together.

PPF

Several months ago I started altering a board book.

I only got as far as putting in some backgrounds.

Two of the backgrounds are below...

See, just some acrylic paint patterns.

Now here are three doodly designs I put on 

some of the other backgrounds last night.  I found spots that

looked like people so I enhanced them on a couple, added
flowers  on one,  and just plain doodled on one.

Join all the artists this week at Paint Party Friday
and see some fabulous art.

My header is a photo of a couple of my ancestors.

Spring!

Spring! I love it in spite of pollen. Everything seems
fresh and new again. This old  photo in my header area is
 of me (blonde) and my sister. It must have been summer
since we have on our summer "uniforms" (panties!). We lived
out in the country and had no one else to play with except
each other till we got a baby sister a year or two after
this photo was taken. I love to look at my old family photos.

Well, today it really seemed like spring! At this time of year

the warm weather quickly get wiped out by cold weather.

But just to say Happy Spring, I am showing for Paint Party Friday

a couple of daffodils I painted in watercolor class this week.

And because I paint faster than the rest of the class

(or maybe not as careful) I had enough time left

to paint this profile of a little girl.

Have a great Easter weekend!

Back in Class - Yay!

My header is a photo of my HS friends, just some of them,

since I can think of several close friends who aren't in the

photo. I'm not in it either since I took the picture.

This week's watercolor project was a hellebores plant.

I did a couple of sketches.

 

I did this in NeocolorII water soluble crayons

 

And lastly a doodle

I'm looking forward to the Paint Party Friday event

so I can see what my online artist friends have

created lately. Thanks to Eva and Kristin we

have this blog to enjoy each week.

Some Reruns

No art classes this week and no place in the house 

that I can paint in. I guess I could do some drawings,

but I really am missing paint!

 This is a pastel painting I donated to the church bazaar.

 A collage

 Watercolor of a butterfly

A Collage. This is me in the 3rd grade.

Paint Party Friday is such a great event,

hosted by Eva and Kristin each week.

A bit of digital tweaking...

No watercolor class this week and my house is prepped for

showing to potential buyers. I'm afraid to get out too much

artwork supplies for fear of having to quickly stow it somewhere.

So what I have done is to take a painting I had on computer

and  intensified the colors using Photoshop Elements.

The new header is a photo of something I made

using silver colored metal tape. I colored it with a bronze 

color alcohol ink to look like a different metal.

I think we all need to be more loving in our speech and actions even

when (and maybe especially when) we disagree.  Of course,

I am addressing myself as much as anyone else. The world

is a scary place these days and so different from in my youth.

For a rewarding way to spend some time, visit Paint Party Friday,

an online blog where artists post their works. Thanks to Kristin

and Eva for hosting this weekly event.

Koi

This week's project in watercolor class was to paint a koi.

I have never tried to draw a fish before so mine looks 

like it needs more food. This is my effort for Paint Party Friday.

Hummingbird

One of the students in my watercolor class brought a

calendar she had created from her photos from her trip

to Ecuador. The photos were all exotic hummingbirds.

We could choose any of the birds to paint. I painted the

Booted Racket-tail hummingbird.

Fridays are so special because I get to go to a really special

art gallery called Paint Party Friday. Since anyone can

view these fantastic works of art, come by and see what

a variety of art works are there. Kristin and Eva are

the hard working hosts of the blog.

Old Rusty Bell

Again we had choices on what to paint in the weekly watercolor

class. I chose to do this old rusty bell. Thanks to Eva and Kristin

for hosting our Paint Party Friday each week.

Pier and Rope

Here is this week's watercolor project. Other than that, I

did no other art except a few valentine cards I am

sending to the homebound members of my church.

Here is my effort for the Paint Party Friday event.

A LIttle Bit of Art

Today someone is coming to pick up a lot of my surplus

art supplies and materials I don't think I'll ever use again.

She is home schooling her son and wants to have him learn

all sorts of art as well as the normal school subjects.

In watercolor class Monday we did some overlapping leaves.

That's about it. I have to keep aiming toward having

the perfect house to sell. It's been on the market for 10 days.

Not a lot of action yet, but it is still early in the spring buying season.

Know anyone wanting to live in suburban Richmond VA?

I spent a good bit of time this week organizing my paperwork

to give to my CPA so he can get my income taxes done.

What a pain this is every year! Even a financial pain since

he charges an arm and a leg to do the work.

I think I showed my Christmas 2016 poinsettia before.

When I  brought it inside it lost all its green leaves and

had the tiniest little pink ones on the ends of the stalks.

Here it is now. I feel like a proud mama because it is

finally putting out green leaves at the nodes. The pink 

leaves have grown larger and are a deep pink now.

I took a painting from 2009 and did a bit of Photoshop

Elements changes and added a quote from Helen Keller.

Have fun visiting all the Paint Party Friday artists this weekend.

Art Again!

My watercolor class started back up. Our project this

week was this icy stream and snowy landscape.

Then I went home and finished one I had started but

had given up on. Another snowy scene.

Sunday's sermon a couple of weeks ago brought

this scene to mind. I just did a sketch. Maybe later

on I can try to draw the figures better.

Thanks to the hard-working team of Eva and Kristin

we can visit each other at Paint Party Friday and

enjoy the efforts of fellow artists.

Snow!

There are times when I'd love to have the snow trap me inside.

However, I do have a lot of errands to do and can't do because

of the un-plowed roads and 4" of snow on the ground.

Here are photos of my driveway and deck.

So what should an artistic person do when facing

this situation? Do art, of course. Only my muse

is still on vacation. I did try a pencil sketch of an 

old barn, using Prisacolor pencils. The paper was

really rough textured. I had thought it was watercolor

paper, but now I'm not sure what it is. I am joining

my friends at Paint Party Friday and thanking those of

you who visited my blog, especially those who left

comments, during my recent absence of several weeks.